Conventional digital cameras acquire images by using light image sensor arrays. However, prior to light entering these sensor arrays, the light first passes through a color filter array (CFA), allowing only one wavelength of the light to enter any given sensor pixel of the sensor array. This results in a mosaic image where each pixel only contains one color—typically only red, green or blue. The process of converting this mosaic image to a full-color image is called “demosaicing.”
Various demosaicing methods exist in the art; however, many of these methods result in undesirable effects in the converted image including false color artifacts, such as chromatic aliases, zippering effects (abrupt unnatural changes of intensity over a number of neighboring pixels), purple fringing and loss of image resolution.
Additionally, most conventional demosaicing methods fail to provide adequate image conversion for images that range from high to low noise. Accordingly, such demosaicing methods are not robust enough to be used on a variety of images.
Other conventional demosaicing methods have large computational complexity, which results in undesirably slow image processing speeds and inability for fast processing using hardware and/or software available on a conventional portable camera system.
In view of the foregoing, a need exists for an improved image demosaicing system and method in an effort to overcome the aforementioned obstacles and deficiencies of conventional image demosaicing systems and methods.